Chapter 31

Beatrice

“Everything looks perfect,” I assured Persephone when she moved the throw pillows around for the seventh time. The crazy witch had gone out and bought throw pillows to impress her mother! And that’s not all. She’d done something much worse. She’d met me at the diner where I was having lunch with Dev and insisted we go shopping for throw pillows together. Now, I knew what Hell was like.

“I never should have told her about Dev,” she muttered as she paced the room. Her nerves were frayed. I was certain it would be easier when her mom finally arrived. She’d been delayed at one of the transport tubes, giving Persephone more time to arrange the damn throw pillows and put out the guest towels. The last had come as a shock to me. We had guest towels. Who knew?

When the doorbell rang, Persephone froze. She simply stood there, staring at the throw pillows.

“Are you going to answer that?” I asked.

“What if she tries to make me go home?” she asked.

“You are an adult,” I reminded her. “Plus, your mom is great. You’ve said it yourself dozens of times. There is no reason to be afraid of her reaction.”

“I’ve never heard her as upset as she was when I mentioned Dev,” she whispered.

“It’s going to be fine,” I assured her on my way to answer the door. Someone had to let her mom in, and it obviously wasn’t going to be Persephone.

The woman on the other side of the door launched herself at me. I had no time to defend myself from the hug. Dear goddess! What was wrong with these people?

“You must be Beatrice!” she exclaimed, rocking back and forth with me in her arms. “I’ve heard all about the horrible things that have happened to you, but it’s okay. I’m here now.”

“Okay,” I squeaked, not sure how to respond to this level of affection. When I’d thought no one could be worse than Persephone, I’d been mistaken. The woman hugging me was the spitting image of Persephone. They could pass for sisters.

“Mom,” Persephone interrupted. “Beatrice is still getting used to hugging, so you need to go easy on her.”

“Oh!” her mom exclaimed, releasing me and taking a step back. “I hadn’t even considered that.”

“Come on in,” I told her. “It’s nice to finally meet you.” I hesitated, not sure what to call her. Persephone hadn’t told me her mother’s name.

“Call me Demi,” she said as she made her way into the apartment. “Oh! I love these throw pillows.”

Persephone gave me an I told you so look.

“You didn’t need to come out here early, Mom,” Persephone began nervously.

“You don’t want me here?” Demi asked.

“Of course, I want you here,” Persephone assured her. “I was excited about you coming in a couple of weeks.”

“She freaked out and started cleaning like a crazy woman when she found out you were coming today,” I added, leaving out the throw pillow shopping.

“You don’t need to go to any trouble for me,” Demi insisted before stopping to consider what she’d said. “That sounded ridiculous, didn’t it? Of course, you’re worried about proving that you’re doing fine on your own. It’s only natural.”

“I want you to be proud of me,” Persephone told her.

Demi moved across the room to hug Persephone. “Of course, I’m proud of you. Look how much you’ve accomplished. I’d rather you weren’t out here, but I can’t keep you in a bubble forever. It was a mistake to hide you away as long as I did.”

“Why didn’t you want Persephone around other witches?” I asked. My friend didn’t understand her parents’ reasoning. She had only a vague idea of why they felt they needed to isolate her from the preternatural community.

“I don’t need to tell you that there are a lot of dangers in the world,” Demi began. “Many of them you won’t understand until it’s too late.”

That answered absolutely nothing and made me wonder if Demi was hiding something. There was no time to ponder her words before she was on the attack regarding Dev.

“You both need to stay away from angels,” she told us. “No good can come from involving yourself with a fallen angel.”

Persephone blew out a frustrated breath. “They aren’t all bad. I’ve met Dev, and he seems nice. Rainer Vigil has stopped by Bliss several times, and he’s also very nice.”

“Rainer Vigil?” Demi screeched. “You’ve been spending time around one of Lucifer’s closest friends? Next thing you know, you’ll tell me you’ve met Lucifer.”

“I’ve never met Lucifer,” Persephone assured her. “I only see Rainer at work occasionally. I also saw him at The Cauldron the night we met Dev.”

“Hanging around with Dev could get you into trouble,” Demi stated. “What’s his full name? If you tell me, I can find out more information about him.”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “He introduced himself as Dev, and I never asked if that was his full name.” Fallen angels didn’t have last names, and while Dev was likely short for something else, I didn’t see any reason to find out his full name. For all I knew, he could hate the name, or it could be difficult to pronounce.

Demi sat on the sofa and pulled out her tablet. “I’ll look up all the fallen angels who might go by that name. You can pick out your Dev from their photos.”

“You have a fallen angel database?” I asked.

“Yes,” Demi replied. “I have files on every angel.”

“Why?” Persephone asked.

“They’re a danger to you,” Demi replied.

She turned the tablet toward me. The page was filled with images but no names. “These are all the fallen angels who might go by Dev. Lucifer’s also on there, but obviously you aren’t dating the devil.”

“That’s him,” I said, tapping the screen.

All the color drained from Demi’s face. “You’re joking, right?”

“No,” I replied. “Why do you think I’m joking?”

“That’s definitely Dev,” Persephone agreed.

“That’s Lucifer,” Demi breathed out.

“Which one?” I asked.

“Your Dev,” was her barely audible reply. “You are dating Lucifer.”

No one spoke. It wasn’t possible. There had to be a mistake.

“It can’t be,” I argued.

“She’s right,” Persephone agreed. “There’s no way Beatrice is dating Lucifer.”

“I stole Lucifer’s car,” I added.

“You stole Lucifer’s car?” Demi screeched.

“It’s not nearly as bad as it sounds,” I insisted. “Dev can’t be Lucifer. Why would Lucifer date someone like me?”

“Why did you steal his car?” Demi pushed.

“There was a good reason,” Persephone explained.

“There is never a good reason to steal from Lucifer,” Demi argued. “This is bad. This is very bad.”

I was still certain she was mistaken. My mind was racing over every detail of my dates with Dev, trying to figure out some way to prove Dev and Lucifer weren’t the same fallen angel.

“This is still fixable,” Demi said in a calmer voice. “You’ll end things before he figures out you’re the one who stole his car. It might be best to hide you at my place for a few months.” She gave me a wobbly smile. “There’s no reason to panic. You’re family now, so we’ll take care of you.”

“I am?” I asked.

“Of course, you are,” Persephone assured me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. When I looked at her, I could see it in her eyes. She believed her mom. She believed I was dating Lucifer.

“Oh, goddess,” I uttered. “I’ve been dating Lucifer. I told Lucifer I stole his car.”

“We’ll pack your things now,” Demi insisted. “Which room is yours?”

I said nothing, just gestured to my room.

“It’s going to be okay,” Persephone told me, her arm still wrapped around my shoulders.

I nodded, unable to speak. I’d finally met a guy I liked, and everything between us was a lie. I didn’t know if he was playing games with me or if he was trying to punish me for stealing his car. Whatever the reason, my shock quickly turned to anger.

“That lying bastard,” I hissed.

“We should do something horrible to him,” Persephone added because she was a great friend—the kind I could count on to bring a tarp and shovels if I asked her to.

“No,” I said with a shake of my head. “I want to end things. Tomorrow, I’ll have him come over here and tell him it’s over.”

“You’re going to break up with the devil?” Persephone gasped.

“I may punch the devil in his lying face,” I grumbled.

“I’m sorry he hurt you,” Persephone said quietly.

I didn’t want to think about how he’d hurt me, but it was hard to avoid. This was what I got for getting attached to a virtual stranger. We’d had four dates, if you counted the night we met at the club. “I was a fool for letting him get this close to me,” I whispered.

“No,” Persephone told me. “He was a fool for hurting you. Now, let’s go stop my mom before she has your whole room packed up.”

I nodded, and we went into my room to convince Demi I didn’t need to go into hiding. Something told me it was going to be a long night.